Developing a learning organization
One approach to the development of a learning organization, as advocated by Senge
(1990), is to focus on collective problem-solving within an organization using team
learning and a ‘soft systems’ approach whereby all the possible causes of a problem
are considered in order to define more clearly those which can be dealt with and
those which are insoluble.
Garratt (1990) believes that managers have to develop learning abilities as individ-
uals, and work and learn as teams. He advocates the use of development activities
such as job enlargement, job enrichment, monitoring, and various forms of team and
project-based work.
The learning organization and knowledge management
Learning organizations are very much concerned with developing and sharing the
knowledge that is critical to their strategic success. The problem is that it is hard to
capture tacit knowledge in the form of the deeply embedded amalgam of wisdom
and know-how that competitors are unable to copy. Methods of sharing knowledge
were described in Chapter 12. One approach, as advocated by Wenger and Snyder
(2000), is to encourage the development of ‘communities of practice’ in which people
with similar concerns exchange ideas and knowledge and discuss shared problems.
Wenger and Snyder claim that a community of practice could be treated as a ‘learning
ecology’ with a life of its own in which there is scope to reflect jointly on experience so
that it can be converted into learning.
Scarborough and Carter (2000) suggest that although the concepts of the learning
organization and organizational learning have offered some valuable insights into
the way in which knowledge and learning are fostered by management practice, they
have been overshadowed, at least in terms of practitioner interest, by the explosive
growth of knowledge management activity. They comment that:
This may be attributable to the problems of translating their (knowledge management
and organizational learning) broad, holistic principles into practice. Knowledge
management initiatives by contrast, are often more specifically targeted and can there-
fore be identified more closely with business needs.Problems with the concept of the learning organization
The notion of the learning organization remains persuasive because of its ‘rationality,
human attractiveness and presumed potential to aid organizational effectiveness and
advancement’ (Harrison, 1997). But the concept has been criticized by Harrison
Organizational learning and the learning organization ❚ 545